Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot is a parkour master

Parkour! That's what we should all be devoting our combined robotics expertise towards. There's no nobler human pursuit, so of course we should create a robot that can master the so-called 'sport of kings.' And yes, that is the true sport of kings.

Boston Dynamics has shown off its new version of SpotMini, a robot dog that's slightly less intimating cased in its more consumer friendly rounded future armor. But now it's also catching us up on what's been going down with its bipedal Atlas bot, the most humanoid of its creations.

Atlas can now jump from elevated block to elevated block, and do a complete about-face in the air. It can leap pretty high, and also do a backflip – and then celebrate its backflipping ability. I could do without the grandstanding, future destroyer of worlds.